Goddess of Yesterday

There is no better doorway into Bronze Age
Greece than this exciting novel for
young readers by Caroline B. Cooney. From the
first page when this spunky
girl, Anaxandra, is taken from her parents and
her home by pirates when she is
only six years old to the last page, when she is in no
man's land during the Trojan
War, the reader has to admire this girl who tells her
story in a matter of fact way
with neither self-pity or self-aggrandizement.

The reader is immediately plunged into a brutal
age with viewpoints and
attitudes that are totally foreign to the twenty-first
century reader. Fear of
offending the gods rules the lives of all citizens
of this bronze age society,
but it is perfectly all right to burn and pillage other
islands and carry off citizens to be sold into a life of slavery.
The gods are by no means united into a common religion; instead,
two gods may be supporting opposing armies
or kings. Through her very thorough research
into The Iliad and other ancient
writers, Ms. Cooney makes all of the characters
come alive as we observe
their personalities through their actions.

Anaxandra begins her story on a small island in the
Aegean Sea where she lives
happily with her mother and her father, a chieftain
of the island. One day when
she is only six, ships filled with soldiers arrive.
They demand a tribute and little
Anaxandra as a hostage. The leader of the soldiers,
King Nicander, decides that
Anaxandra will make a good playmate for his
crippled daughter, Callisto. Anaxandra
is taken into the new family and she gains many
useful skills as time passes. Then
one day again pirates come to plunder and the entire
island is soon in flames. Anaxandra
escapes, but her new family is killed. It is when a
new fleet of ships arrives that
Anaxandra must take advantage of mistaken identity
and claim to be Princess Callisto
so that she can survive and not be sold into slavery.
King Menelaus takes her home,
saves the treasure taken for her dowry and treats her
well. But Queen Helen is
suspicious of a princess with red hair. Like all Greeks
of this period, she knows
not only her own ancestry, but is familiar with the
ancestry of the late King Nicander.
Helen is suspicious that Anaxandra is not Princess Callisto.
One day two Trojan princes,
Aeneas and Paris arrive. Paris and Helen are strongly attracted
to each other, and when Menelaus
leaves to attend a funeral, they plunder his kingdom and
Helen sails away with
Paris. Anaxandra must go with them to care for Helen's
infant son. Anaxandra's
adventures in Troy and her final meeting with Menelaus
are exciting, and upon finishing the story the reader
can really feel that a
trip through time to Bronze Age Greece has occurred.

In case the reader would care to review his or her
knowledge of the Trojan War with all its famous
personalities, both human and divine, Ms. Cooney has
provided a very enlightening discussion of the various
issues surrounding this fascinating novel. She points
out where she has altered a few facts to fit the literary
demands of the story. Her insights are both entertaining
and informative.